perineal urethrostomy-anybody any experience of this?

[ohreallyIsee]

Dcat has had repeated urethral blockages(2 in the last year) which required catheterisation. Vet has said that if this keeps happening even with specialist diet he may need a perinatal urethrostomy, I was wondering if anybody has a cat who has had this done.

Yes, my cat had this done.

He started getting blockages at the age of 4 and needed to be catheterised several times. The specialist food kept him clear for nearly 7 years but then the blockages started up again.

The vet recommended the operation and the insurance company agreed to fund it. My cat was 11yrs old when he had the operation and it all went well. He's now 17yrs old and still going strong.

I chose not to have it done because our cat was getting old and his bloods were pretty poor.

ours is 8, otherwise healthy, it happened first when was about 18 months and has happened twice since November last year. We're going to see how he goes on a strict diet but if it happens again we will have to think about having it done

We had a cat who had this done aged six, he recovered perfectly and was never incontinent or showed any signs of trauma afterwards. He lived another nine years and never had another blockage. Make sure the surgeon that does it is used to doing the op in cats. Our vet was only used to doing it on cows (agricultural vet) so he referred us to a pet hospital in Glasgow where there were specialists for the operation in cats. I know someone who let their local vet do it and their cat died so it's important to make sure that whoever does it has a lot of experience.

We live on the isle of man so our vet isn't sure if any one on island can do it, they're going to find out and if necessary they will refer us to a vet in England obviously will mean more costs in ferries+hotels

it's a good thing we love the expensive bugger